My friend has a salt water, and he has noticed a red algea growth on some of the live rock and the crushed coral at the bottom as well as a film on the surface of the water. Filtration is a protein skimmer and live rock/algea. What is this and what can he do to get rid of it?
Red algea growth
- Thread starter Lspooky4
- Start date
Need more info to identify. Is it a Like a "film" that easily comes off when disturbed or is it a hard algae that is tough to remove from the surface it is attached to?
Joel
Joel
This is not from personal experience but rather from reading I have done, If the red algae is tough and gritty to the touch it is coraline algar and a sign of a healthy tank, just scrape it of the glass an d otherwise leave it alone. If it is red slime it is a sign that you need to raise the intensity of your lighting a bit and check your nitrate and phosphate levels, both can be lowered by consistant water changes and the phosphates esp. by adequete protien skimming.
Between the crushed coral substrate and the "film" on the surface, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the tank has too little flow and detrius and thus nitrates have accumulated in the substrate. The result is a mixture of cyanobacteria, diatoms, and dinoflagellates feeding off the nitrates and phosphates.
Has he been testing for nitrates and phosphates?
It's easy to tell the difference between cyanobacteria and coralline. Coralline is calcareous, hard to the touch, difficult to remove. Cyanobacteria is light and slimy and can spread much much faster.
Without knowing more information it would be tough to give you any help with a cure.
Has he been testing for nitrates and phosphates?
It's easy to tell the difference between cyanobacteria and coralline. Coralline is calcareous, hard to the touch, difficult to remove. Cyanobacteria is light and slimy and can spread much much faster.
Without knowing more information it would be tough to give you any help with a cure.
this algae is very good, remove what doesnt look good to you ie. front of glass and surface and leave the rest on the rocks. possibly reduce amount of food during feeding. algae lives on the nutrients in the tank and if you get an overgrowth of algae i would look at your feeding amount
I dont think he is talking about coraline algae, I think he is refering to the pesty red cyano bacteria. They are really nasty and will cover the entire tank killing livestock. They are actually in the bacteria family and not algae, there are few reason they occur and a few solutions for them. the reason they occur : 1. Too much nutrients hence high nitrate, detritus, waste. 2. lack of flow in the tank, they occur mostly in the lower flow areas of the tank. solution: 1. most effective way - use the red sea "red slime away" , just be sure to follow the directions, it is invert save so there wont be any problem with corals and inverts. 2. turn off your lights for a couple of days and they will die off automatically (they are photosynthetic), dont worry about your coral and fish, they can live without lights for a couple of days no problem. hope this helps.
My suspician was cyano too but wanted more info befor going into that. It can be tough to get rid of but a trick I found is low doses of eurithomycian kills it. The cheapest way to do this is with fresh water maracyn from Mardel. Ignore the instructions on the box for this purpose. I use 1 tablet per about 50 gallons of water. Turn off protein skimmers and remove carbon while doing this. Normally 2 treatment about 24 hours apart get rid of it. A word of caution though, although this get rid of the cyano, it does not fix what alloud it to happen in the first place. THat needs to be determined and corrected or it will be back again shortly. Water quality, as mentioned by others plays a huge roll in the production of nucience algaes, espcially phosphates and nitrates. Test for these and address accordingly, water changes are the best course of action to correct these. Lights play a roll in this as well. Incorrect lamps like cool whites bought at a harware store for example can cause this problem. Old light bulb will cause this, they need replaced ever 12 to 18 months even if they are still working. Or too much light like sun light or the lights being on too long (8-10 hours is about right for most) will cause it. Check into these things and see if anything needs adjusting or replaced and it will go away and stay away.
Sounds like nuisance algae. Do a couple big water changes and cut down the light period see if that helps. Lower your feedings. Get some inverts to clean up the rock and to stir up the substrate. Snails will clean the glass. Yum!